Interesting cultural policy take on Virginia Tech

13May

I wrote a very long post after the Virginia Tech shootings, reflecting on a range of cultural issues that are also relevant to Australia. While being in favour of gun control, I did not pursue that aspect much.

Korean-American Christian Hyepin Im has since posted on the God’s Politics site. She argues that Asian Americans have been starved of government support because they are seen as “model immigrants”.

There is no denying Seung-Hui Cho was one sick individual whose wild rampage was senseless and tragic. At the same time, I can’t help but mourn and wonder whether or not this tragedy could have been averted if Seung-Hui had early intervention. For too long, Asian American communities have been ignored or left out of policy, program, and funding decisions under the justification of being “model minorities.” Only recently, studies are acknowledging that monolingual Asians and their families are under-served in this country. Such short-sighted decisions are costing many innocent lives, and taking a huge toll on the community and the country. For example, juvenile delinquency for Asian Americans has increased while it has decreased for other groups in the last 20 years. Asian Americans suffer from high suicide, depression, and domestic violence rates.

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